Prime Minister Yair Lapid said on Sunday that his office would investigate reports of a mass grave in central Israel containing the bodies of Egyptian commandos who were killed during the 1967 Six-Day War.
Lapid's office said Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi brought up the issue in a call after Ynet's sister publication Yedioth Ahronoth published witness accounts suggesting there was an unmarked grave near Latrun, an area between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv where Israel's army fought the Egyptian soldiers decades ago.
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Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
(Photo: AFP, Reuters)
The publication included archival material and interviews with residents recounting how dozens of Egyptian soldiers killed in the battle may be buried there.
"The Egyptian president raised the report about the collective grave of Egyptian soldiers during the (1967) Six-Day War," Lapid's office said.
The Israeli leader, according to the statement, directed his military secretary "to examine the issue in depth and to update Egyptian officials".
After fighting another war in 1973, Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979. That was the first it signed with an Arab country and Israel regards it as a cornerstone of its security.
Al-Sisi also congratulated Lapid for taking office, and the two spoke about the importance of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty.
"Lapid and al-Sisi discussed bilateral and regional issues, emphasized the importance of the peace agreement between the countries that laid the foundations for strategic relations and a central pillar for regional stability," Lapid's office said.
The two also discussed U.S. President Joe Biden's upcoming visit, the Palestinian issue and the need for peace. They agreed to meet as soon as possible.
Lapid's office also noted that the leaders examined ways to counteract the shockwaves of the war in Ukraine in regard to food security.